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This study investigated the time course dynamics of spoken word recognition among Korean learners of English. Multiple candidates were activated when a word was auditorily provided and these candidate words included onset competitors that shared a beginning (candy, candle) and rhyme competitors sharing an ending (candle, sandal). Although onset competitors have been found to be a substantial competitor in L1 and L2, little has been known about relative effect of rhyme competitors compared with the that of onset ones in L2. This paper examined L1 (Korean) and L2 (English) word recognition by the late bilinguals. In each language, eye gaze was recorded as the participants heard the stimuli and viewed the display of the pictures: ones corresponding to onset and a rhyme competitors, and one depicting an unrelated word and the drawing of the target words. Eye tracking results revealed a strong competition between onset competitors and the target words in L1 or L2. In contrast, competition between rhyme competitors and the target word turned out to be insignificant in either L1 or L2. Hence, Rhyme competition may not be a maximally efficient factor in speech recognition process either in L1 or L2.